Recommendation 7

We support the Minister for Housing and Homelessness’s call for local authorities to assess their local need for M4(3) wheelchair user standard homes. However, we do not believe that the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) goes far enough to match this ambition. At the next NPPF review, the Government must include an explicit requirement for local authorities to assess the local need for homes at M4(3) wheelchair user standard. The NPPF should also encourage local authorities to include a required minimum percentage of M4(3) standard homes in their local plan, with the precise figure based on their local need assessment. If the Government does not make these changes at the next NPPF review, the Department must set out in writing to us, upon publication of the revised NPPF, how it plans to increase the supply of new homes built to the M4(3) standard to meet the needs of wheelchair users.